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The Mexican American War

James K. Polk Requests a Declaration of War | 1846


Background: In May 1846, President James K. Polk offered the following rationale when he
asked Congress to declare war on Mexico.

Document: Upon the earnest appeal both of the Congress and convention of Texas I had
ordered an efficient military force to take a position between the Nueces and the Del Norte
[the Rio Grande]. This had become necessary to meet a threatened invasion of Texas by
the Mexican forces, for which extensive military preparations had been made. The invasion
was threatened solely because Texas had determined, in accordance with a solemn
resolution of the Congress of the United States, to annex herself to our Union, and under
these circumstances it was plainly our duty to extend our protection over her citizens and
soil. The force was concentrated at Corpus Christi, and remained there until after I had
received such information from Mexico as rendered it probable, if not certain, that the
Mexican Government would refuse to meet our envoy. Meantime, Texashad become an
integral part of our Union. The Congress of Texas, by its act of December 19, 1836, had
declared the Rio del Norte to be the boundary of that Republic. Our own Congress had,
moreover, with great unanimity, by the act approved December 31, 1845, recognized the
country beyond the Nueces as a part of our territory by including it in our own revenue
system. It became, therefore, of urgent necessity to provide for the defense of that
portion of our country. The movement of the troops to the Del Norte was made by the
commanding general under the positive instructions to abstain from all aggressive acts
toward Mexico or Mexican citizens and to regard the relations between that Republic and the
United States as peaceful unless she should declare war or commit acts of hostility
indicative of a state of war. The Mexican forces at Matamoras assumed a belligerent
attitudes, and on the 12th of April General Ampudia, then in command, notified General
[Zachary] Taylor to break up his camp within twenty-four hours and to retire beyond the
Nueces River, and in the event of his failure to comply with these demands announced that
arms and arms alone, must decide the question. But no open act of hostility was committed
until the 24th of April. On that day, General Arista, who had succeeded to the command of
the Mexican forces, communicated to General Taylor that he considered hostilities
commenced and should prosecute them. A party of dragoons of 63 men and officers were
on the same day dispatched from the American camp up the Rio del Norte, on its left bank,
to ascertain whether the Mexican troops had crossed or were preparing to cross the river,
became engaged with a large body of these troops, and after a short affair, in which some
16 were killed and wounded, appear to have been surrounded and compelled to
surrender. We have tried every effort at reconciliation. But now, after reiterated
menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory
and shed American blood upon the American soil. She has proclaimed that hostilities have
commenced , and that the two nations are now at war. As war exists, and, not withstanding
all our efforts to avoid it, exists by the act of Mexico herself, we are called upon by every
consideration of duty and patriotism to vindicate with decision the honor, the rights, and the
interests of our country.
Abraham Lincoln Protests the Mexican War | 1847
Background: Elected as a Whig to Congress in 1846, Abraham Lincoln gained notoriety
when he lashed out against the Mexican War, calling it immoral, proslavery, and a threat to
the nation's republican values. President James K. Polk had called for war, accusing Mexico
of shedding of "American blood on American soil. Lincoln responded by introducing a series
of resolutions demanding to know the "particular spot of soil on which the blood of our

citizens was so shed." One of Lincoln's constituents branded him "the Benedict Arnold of our
district," and he was denied renomination by his own party.

Document: Whereas the President of the United States, in his message of May 11, 1846,
has declared that "the Mexican Government not only refused to receive him, [the envoy of
the United States,] or listen to his propositions, but, after a long-continued series of
menaces, has at last invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our
own soil:" And again, in his message of December 8, 1846, that "we had ample cause of
war against Mexico long before the breaking out of hostilities; but even then we forbore to
take redress into our own hands until Mexico herself became the aggressor, by invading our
soil in hostile array, and shedding the blood of our citizens:" And yet again, in his message
of December 7, 1847, that "the Mexican Government refused even to hear the terms of
adjustment which he [our minister of peace] was authorized to propose, and finally, under
wholly unjustifiable pretexts, involved the two countries in war, by invading the territory of
the State of Texas, striking the first blow, and shedding the blood of our citizens on our own
soil." And whereas this House is desirous to obtain a full knowledge of all the facts which go
to establish whether the particular spot on which the blood of our citizens was so shed was
or was not at that time our own soil: Therefore, Resolved By the House of Representatives,
That the President of the United States be respectfully requested to inform this House -1st. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed, as in his messages
declared, was or was not within the territory of Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819, until
the Mexican revolution.
2d. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory which was wrested from Spain by the
revolutionary Government of Mexico.
3d. Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of people, which settlement has
existed ever since long before the Texas revolution, and until its inhabitants fled before the
approach of the United States army.
4th. Whether that settlement is or is not isolated from any and all other settlements by the
Gulf and the Rio Grande on the south and west, and by wide uninhabited regions on the
north and east.
5th. Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority of them, or any of them, have
ever submitted themselves to the government or laws of Texas or the United States, by
consent or compulsion, either by accepting office, or voting at elections, or paying tax, or
serving on juries, or having process served upon them, or in any other way.
6th. Whether the people of that settlement did or did not flee from the approach of the
United States army, leaving unprotected their homes and their growing crops, before the
blood was shed, as in the messages stated; and whether the first blood, so shed, was or
was not shed within the enclosure of one of the people who had thus fled from it.
7th. Whether our citizens, whose blood was shed, as in his message declared, were or were
not, at that time, armed officers and soldiers, sent into that settlement by the military order
of the President, through the Secretary of War.

8th. Whether the military force of the United States was or was not sent into that
settlement after General Taylor had more than once intimated to the War Department that,
in his opinion, no such movement was necessary to the defence or protection of Texas.

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